The Descent
by PaintedinAllColors
Summary: I could feel it, spiralling out of my control as I descended into the darkness, my spirit broken and strength gone.


Me: One of my darker stories...I don't own, cuz if I did I wouldn't be here writing fanfiction, now would I? So, please tell me what you think! Haha it's my first dark one. Well totally dark oneshot anywayzz. So enjoy~!

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><p>I could feel it inside of me. I always could. Ever since he died, I have been able to feel him. His spirit, trying to tempt and corrupt me. Trying to force me to the darkness.<p>

I lie on my bed next to Mai, who is sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of my torment. The pain is there now, constantly there. It was only occasionally before, but now, now I'm overcome by it. The pain, the urge to kill and wreak havoc upon the world. It's all there, and I have been denying it for years now. Six years, in fact.

And it gets progressively worse. The doctors say nothing, they cannot pinpoint the source of my migraines and aches that have become my constant companion in these past few years. But I know what it is, who it is, and why they won't go away. It's him. It has to be. Nobody else would do this.

But I have resisted, always resisted, ignored him. But now, now its just too much. I can't go on like this much longer. I have dark circles around my eyes, and although I have always been pale, my skin is as white as death, and just as cold.

Aang says I've lost weight, and Katara thinks I look horribly ill but can't heal me. Sokka believes that I have a more…mental illness, but Toph has pointed out that I have shown no signs of being unstable. I can't tell them. I can't tell them anything. They wouldn't understand what was going on with me. They didn't understand my increasing paranoia and my shortened temper, instead blaming it on my insomnia.

But I know what it really is. He's trying to lure me in, turn me into a monster like him. Like my sister. He corrupted her, and she in turn corrupted me for a while. I'm not proud of it. But they never gained complete control over me. They hate me now, and I can feel their malice, their hatred, their rage, follow me wherever I go. I can hear their voices in the dead of night, or when I am alone. I see their faces in the shadows, contorted into indescribable expressions; madness etched into their features forever. I sense their presence following me, conforming to the darkness that seems to surround me wherever I go.

Every night seems like an eternity as I lie awake and feel my grip on my mind and soul slip away. I am locked in a battle I cannot win, and I can only evade the inevitable. And my life seems like one eternal night, with no moon or stars, complete darkness, and I don't think dawn is coming. No, for me, the sun will never rise again.

They have taunted me, tormented me, tortured me with images of all the ones I love being killed. They whisper to me in the dark, tempting me, seducing me, and even though I have resisted, I know my resolve falters as the dark takes over my life and claims my soul for its own.

I won't last another night, I can feel it. They have worn me down, broken my barriers and my mind. I know this. They know this, and they rejoice in victory. They know I don't know what's real and what's not. They know I can't tell dream from reality, truth from the lies, that I can't trust myself anymore. But nobody else knows. I have concealed my descent into the darkness from everyone carefully, not wanting them to know out of shame.

I have failed. I was supposed to keep it at bay until Tao was sixteen, but I feel my strength fading fast. It's getting harder to stay awake, and I can feel them pulling me into the dark, even now. I can't resist any longer, my energy is gone, and my resolve has crumbled.

Thoughts of murder and hatred flit across my mind though they are unwanted, no doubt their doing. I hear the whispers more clearly than ever. I can hear them breathing behind me, I can feel the familiar prickle of distrust I always felt when they were alive, but this time it is augmented by an all too familiar emotion, fear.

Their voices grow louder, until they are screaming, howling words I can't understand but know I will when I succumb to the darkness. I can hear their maniacal laughter even though I know the room around me is silent and still. My fists clench with the effort it takes to not scream as loudly as I can.

It seems that Mai's breath has become that of a hungry dragon, and her warmth has turned into a blistering heat, a consuming fire. I wish I could scream, and never stop screaming. If I could do that, I would never cease the sounds of pure terror that would ring throughout the palace. I would never stop for the fear of the silence, which whispers to me things that the noise cannot chase away.

I beg, plead with the darkness to let me stay, but I can hear its ragged breathing and smell its putrid breath. It smells like death, rotting corpses and terror. And I know that, no matter what, I will descend into its depths tonight. The monster inside with consume me, corrupt me, and I will be powerless to stop it. I feel it roaring inside me, struggling against the fraying ropes that keep it chained away, and I know that my control will break tonight, and that it will be free.

Suddenly, the room seems like a cauldron to me, and the bed feels like its moving. The blankets and sheet are trying to smother me, and I fight my way free from them and fall off the bed, landing with a thump. I think I can hear a beating heart under the floorboards and I start to hyperventilate.

I close my eyes and hope it will all go away, even though I know it is a futile gesture. In fact, all it does is make everything more intense. And they're there. Emerging out of the shadows like always. My tormentors.

_Hello, my son._

_How are you, ZuZu? _

Their voices are mocking, taunting.

_Azula. Ozai. Sister. Father._

Mine holds nothing but acceptance of my fate.

_We have come for you, Zuko._

He extends a hand, and I am compelled to take it. It's nothing but a skeleton; he's nothing but a skeleton with a beating heart and he's reaching for me claiming my soul and my mind as his own and I can do nothing to stop it. My heart races in fear. And they laugh as I fall, I fall in the dark into a bottomless abyss where the light does not penetrate.


End file.
